Sam Biddle

Temporarily-accused sex criminal and Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn may be safely back in the motherland, but the spectre of hotel rape remains. The threat is apparently disquieting enough to justify mandatory rape alert buttons for New York's hotel employees.

Under a new labor contract brokered through the Hotel Association of New York, 30,000 maids and other miscellaneous room attendants will get a button trigger for threatening situations. The next time a pervy guest tries to get smart (or attempts outright rape), the button "will summon help immediately," the NYT reports. The Times also says the union rejects any connection between the rape buttons and the Strauss-Kahn case. And yet, according to the Times' own Twitter dispatch, the devices are referred to as "so-called #DSK buttons." Which seems likely!

But what happens once the button's pressed? Does hotel security come? The police? What if it's pressed by accident? [NYT]